by Berkeley Johnson – Durham Personal Trainer

Even NBA Basketball players need to lose that last 20lbs.

Over the off-season NBA star Kendrick Perkins dropped 20 unwanted lbs to become even more dominant within the paint. This former Boston Celtic had a rough and tough banger-type image due to his extra heavy load. Being on a new team now “The Oklahoma City Thunder” combined with a new run and gun offense and with much younger players – meant he had to commit to moving more quickly up and down the court. His goal was to become more athletic, improve his cardio and drop an extra 20 lbs.

The secret to Kendrick’s success was proper eating and a regimented fitness program. Over the off-season he hired a Nutritionist and personal trained with his former Coach / Personal Trainer. Together they worked on following a clean-eating calorie-correct plan while improving lean muscle while gaining 1st step quickness.

Even at such an elite level, players look to educated professionals like Personal Trainers and Nutritionists to aid them in their development. In order to trim inches and drop the last couple pounds to get them to the next stage – eating right is a must coupled with a tailored fitness program for the best results possible.

Every year as your Pickering Personal Trainer, I do this with up and coming OHL and CHL goalies to increase their performance both off and on the ice. I help them with increasing their speed, agility and power for greater success in competitive sport.

Self-image and self-efficacy is determined by your fitness success. Seek out educated individuals such as Personal Trainers, Nutritionists and Yoga Instructors to increase your wellness knowledge. Go to a gym or have an In Home Personal Trainer come to your home. Gather the right information and have a fun energetic workout!

This just shows that we can all add something new into our lifestyle to help us obtain our fitness goals. As your In Home Personal Training expert I seek out more educated professionals to help me create specific programs for all varieties of clients!

Call us to find out how you can potentially get In Home Personal Training in Durham with me on the Trainers On Site team – 3 x/week for as little as $41/week!

1.888.269.1TOS(867)

or email me at
berkeley@trainersonsite.com

As a Mobile Personal Trainer, I and many of my other In Home Personal Trainers with Trainers On Site are often challenged with the task of improving a woman’s bottom and legs.

Many women want to reduce cellulite, eliminate jiggle and firm up their bottom halves – right ladies?

Where does most cellulite gather? On the bum and hamstrings.

While I know that squats, lunges, dead-lifts and other leg strengthening exercises work – there is one exercise that if done properly will incinerate fat from the legs completely and display a tight and toned tummy.

You know it as SPRINTING.

Sprinting really targets the glutes, hamstrings and quadriceps. Sprints will also really work your core as well – you need strong abdominals and a strong lower back to propel yourself forward down the track.

Sprinting is not an easy exercise to do.

In fact, if you are brand new to exercise I would even recommend you NOT to sprint.

If you are one of the people listed below, I suggest you not to sprint.

- People who have bad knees – don’t sprint.

- People who have bad ankles – don’t sprint.

- People who have a bad lower back – don’t sprint.

- People who have had a neck injury like whiplash – don’t sprint.

If you are not on the “don’t sprint list” check with your doctor if you are unsure before starting any type of sprinting.

Sprinting requires great co-ordination, full body awareness and great cardiovascular capability.

It also helps if you have a very low body fat percentage – allowing you to use more muscle to sprint faster with less chance for injury.

Sprinting essentially puts your heart rate at 100% of its maximum capability. This leads to quick muscle fatigue and allows for short distances to be traveled at a sprint pace. Remember, sprinting is an anaerobic exercise – meaning, lack of oxygen getting to the muscles. Sprinting normally can not be done longer than 30 seconds at any given time.

Here are some much needed items/things to have when performing sprinting exercises or drills.

- Have proper footwear and attire. Don’t wear clothes that restrict your movement. Shorts and tank tops tend to work best. I like to wear the Nike Free running shoe. It feels so light and contouring to the foot like a sock with a little bit of cushioning.

- Have a flat surface with plenty of braking room (the space need to slow down after the finish line). While flat surfaces are not always the norm in life, neither is sprinting at your 100% maximum.

- Wear a Heart Rate Monitor to ensure you run safely at your full potential. The HRM will also tell you if you pushed your hardest for the run. The HRM lets you know when your heart rate is fully recovered, notifying you that you can run again. It will act as a stop watch to time your runs as well.

- Perform a proper dynamic warm-up. Avoid pre-stretching. Stretching will cool the muscles off and make you lose a little bit of power, while a cardio warm-up might not be enough flexibility to prevent injury. (I like skip/hop/runs and runners lunges).

Sprinters look great, don’t they? Look at Donovan Bailey – Canada’s pride and glory. The guy had an eight pack for abs due to sprinting.

The girl in the above picture is a sprinter not a long distance runner. She doesn’t do more than 30 seconds at a time.

Here is a question. Who do you think – more often than not, will have long term injuries? A sprinter or the repetitive joint basher – the long distance runner?

Now let me ask you another, would you rather have a butt and legs like the one above or would you rather run marathons the rest of your life? Your choice, I’m just saying…

Give sprinting a chance. Who knows, you might like it? First check with your Personal Trainer or local coach and even doctor to see if sprinting is right for you?

If you have a treadmill at home or you live close to a school track oval, give Trainers On Site a call for a free sample session to know how to sprint properly and safely.

If you want to BURN FAT FAST in the comfort of your own home, check out these framed pictures from a famous Brampton Personal Trainer.

These are simple home fitness moves that I show my clients how to perform.

I want you to try them out and tell me what you think?

Here is the 1st; The Downward Band Woodchop

In this home fitness exercise you work your back, shoulders, obliques, hips – all in one.

Then we have exercise 2; The Upward Band Woodchop

In this exercise you work the chest, shoulders, obliques and legs. Hello fat-burning!

Up next, exercise 3; 1 Arm/Opposite Leg, Squat/Row

This is where you work your back, biceps, hamstrings and quads.

I hope you enjoyed the pics and I also hope they give you more ideas on exercises you can do at home.

As a graduate of Durham College Fitness and Health Promotion I have come to realize, that everyone has a exercise routine but do not fully understand how the get the body they desire! The way to obtain theses goals and changes is through proper “Periodization”.

Periodization training is the systematic organization of training periods to facilitate the most efficient path to attain set fitness goals. This concept of goal setting was proposed in the 1960′s by a Russian Scientist Leo Matveyeu ,then later? modified by American Scientist to strength and power training. Periodization? involves the shifting of training principals from a high volume and low intensity training regime to low and high intensity regime. Taking place over the course of many weeks prevent over-training and optimizes your results and performance.

By dividing into different cycles from? Marcocycles, Mesocycles and? Mircocycles this process pin points your fitness goals and elevates your overall results. Either if your goal is the lose weight tone up, gain weight or lean out it will take many months. Periodization allows you to progressively overload your body over time; creating the perfect workout and nutritional combination to meet your fitness goals. To simplify the science behind periodization I will divide the cycles into four phases.Within the first phase is “Conditioning” helps correct your postural alignment and etc. Second phase is “Muscular Development” in this phase your metabolism speeds up and total body strength is gained. The third phase known as the “Muscle Toning” phase? within this phase more cross training is incorporated.? Phase four the “Maintenance” phase decreasing your body ability to go through atrophy.(loss in muscle size and strength)

The usual periodized structure shifts your body through traditional gradual progression by basically increasing intensity of the workout overtime. To optimize the structure and aid your body with a proper jolt, unilateral peroidization will provide your workout with daily fluctuation in the load and volume effectively decreasing the bodies adaptability to the exercise strengthening your neuromuscular system.

As a Personal Trainer in Durham, actually Oshawa, I know that in order to develop a great range between strength, power, motor performance and hypertrophy (increase in muscle size) you must peroidize your workouts!

Berkeley Johnson – Trainers On Site

Hey everyone,

We have been getting quite a few requests about our GTA Fitness Workshops held at local Fitness Source’s.

It seems some of the Frequently Asked Questions are;

Is this free? What’s the catch? ?Absolutely free, no catch, no obligation. Just spreading the word of Fitness.

What do you exactly do there? ?We allow the public to sample new fitness tools and get a great sweat doing so.

Where and when they are held at? ?http://www.meetup.com/Fitness-Workshops-TRAINERSONSITE/

Well, here is a quick video on our workshops

http://www.youtube.com/user/robertfostertos#p/a/u/0/UW6fMdhUVuQ

If we at Trainers On Site can help more people get fit, mission accomplished!

If you have a piece of chocolate once or twice a year, you can skip this topic. However, if you crave chocolate, and would do anything to obtain it, then read on……….

A craving for chocolate can sometimes be the body’s craving for magnesium, since chocolate contains large amounts of magnesium. This is true for women who crave it right before menstruating or those who have PMS. Magnesium helps mediate the symptoms of PMS as it is involved in the manufacture of progesterone. A lack of magnesium can lead to a insufficient progesterone levels, producing the PMS symptoms we are all too familiar with. (If not ask your husbands/partners he will refresh your memory LOL!!)

Our bodies are so great let us know what it needs. Chocolate is rich in magnesium. However, it is also high in caffeine like substance theobromine, that over stimulates the adrenals leading to adrenal fatigue. Much of the fine balancing of the sex hormones is the adrenals responsibility, the increase in adrenal fatigue leads to the increase in PMS. So, chocolate ends up increasing PMS even though it contains magnesium.

Next time you are craving chocolate, use it as a reminder to get your magnesium from some other source. The best form to buy is one that contains magnesium citrate, its readily available, easily absorbed, and effective. For severe cases of PMS, take it all month long. For mild cases, take it during ovulation, until the next cycle starts. That should reduce the cravings rapidly. Physical cravings for chocolate should decrease often within one or two weeks after supplementation has begun, and should disappear as long as the amount of magnesium intake is adequate.

For a supplement that can greatly help with those cravings, go to

http://www.truestarportal.com/public/store/list.aspx?folder=trainers

Go under Health, Promotion and Goal Support

Also, foods high in magnesium are:

Almond

Kelp

Cashews and other nuts

Sesame seeds (brown)

Whole wheat

Peas

Beans

Next time your craving chocolate, try one of the food options above or Truestar’s True Craving.

When it comes to exercise, us at Trainers On Site like to think we know fitness!

One of our favorite websites to frequent is Discovery Health.

Discovery health has plenty of factual information and sometimes cool activites to do within their website.

For example check out this excersie fitness test. It takes only 5 minutes and you find out how great your personal knowledge is when it comes to health and wellness.

Be sure to leave a comment and let us know your score. Were you as savvy as you thought you were?

http://discoveryhealth.queendom.com/exercise_access.html

As a mobile fitness trainer, I have noticed that most of our typical clients tend to be women in their 40′s and 50′s.

These women are very interested in health and wellness and hats off to them for being so aware.

I came across this great article from the Toronto Star on the top exercises this audience loves.

Check it out…apparently, having a mobile personal trainer that comes to the door can help as well.

http://www.healthzone.ca/health/dietfitness/fitness/article/809583–top-4-exercises-to-help-women-get-fit-in-their-40s-and-50s

Lmk what your top favorites are?

Hey guys,

On this post I want to discuss what type of equipment do you use with your resistance training.

Are you a believer of Bands?

Do you benefit from Barbells?

Or do dumbbells deliver?

Bands…

I like bands personally for many different reasons;

• They are portable
• They are affordable
• They provide varied resistance

With bands, when you start the exercise the load is easy but gradually becoming increasingly harder every inch into the movement.

Bands weigh virtually nothing but when expanded they can be a tough load on the desired muscle.

Barbells…

The reason why barbells are great is;

• You can lift very heavy weight
• Very sturdy
• You can perform power movements

Barbells usually require a great deal of space and are most often used in a gym setting. One would have to be an experienced exercise enthusiast to use barbells.

Dumbbells

Dumbbells rock because;

• They are portable
• You can recruit a great deal of stabilizer muscles with them
• The required resistance

Dumbbells give you the same resistance at the start of the movement all the way through until the end. If you are investing in dumbbells, invest in Bowflex select techs http://www.fitnesssource.ca

You surely don’t want to invest in 17 different sets of dumbbells and pay double the price?

Don’t forget to leave your comment on the blog on which you prefer, Bands , Barbells, or Dumbbells?

Here’s that video;

Your thoughts on this video are appreciated. Any criticizing comments are welcome.